ABWW Hater of the Day: Daniel Patrick Moynahan

In 1965 an long term Irish Catholic senator with a big penchant for the drink released his report on the black family. He contended that the reason black families were fragile were because of the damage of slavery or segregation, but the black mother. Moynahan described the “tangle of pathology” “discovered by Moynhan caused by dominated and controlled by outspoken and emasculating women. He provided no exploration of the economic injustices black men faced. The report places black man’s unemployment at the feet of black women who joined the labor force in order to feed their families and actively usurped role as head of the family. In actuality black women had the lowest earning power, held the lowliest positions within organizations and corporations, and often required more education to obtain these positions then men. Black women have always had to work, we did not have the luxury of staying at home like the majority of white women. In often wonder if the malaise and dissatisfaction that inspired of the mainstream feminist movement would have been as strong if middle class white women did not have black domestic help?

2 responses to “ABWW Hater of the Day: Daniel Patrick Moynahan”

It should also be pointed out that Moynihan’s beliefs were thoroughly debunked by a later generation od social scientists – many of them black – who point out the key economic role black men play in even the poorest families.

Correct. I also did not mention that his solution for emasculated black men was to join the military. His report coincided with the escalation of the Vietnam war. Black men were cannon fodder in that war and had the highest number of casualties in the engagement.